The schedule for Kristen Tett's Cinema Classics series at Triangle Square Cinemas doesn't look like the syllabus for a film studies class, exactly. This year's offerings run the gamut from critical darlings (the first two "Godfather" movies, "Vertigo") to popcorn classics ("The Great Race") to at least one entry that was outright savaged by most reviewers ("The Cannonball Run").
What the schedule does look like is a cross-section of moviegoers' tastes — and that's the idea. Every year, Tett, who organizes the classics series in Costa Mesa as well as at other Starlight Cinemas locations in Anaheim and Whittier, invites patrons to cast ballots for the movies they'd like to see return to the big screen for a night. And if that means "Airplane!" makes the list while "Citizen Kane" doesn't, which was the case at Triangle Square this year, well, then, so be it.
Whatever your own tastes may be, you'll probably find something to like in the classics series, which runs every other Monday until December, when one holiday-themed film will be shown each week. As Triangle Square prepares to tune up "The Music Man" on June 10, Tett spoke with the Daily Pilot about her own love of movies and her theory about what makes an enduring favorite: